June 4, 2013
Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 13-171
NASA PREPARES FOR LAUNCH OF NEXT SOLAR SATELLITE
WASHINGTON -- NASA's next scientific satellite, which is scheduled for
launch June 26, will provide the most detailed look ever at the sun's
lower atmosphere or interface region.
The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission will observe
how solar material moves, gathers energy, and heats up as it travels
through this largely unexplored region of the solar atmosphere. The
interface region, located between the sun's visible surface and upper
atmosphere, is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emission is
generated. These emissions impact the near-Earth space environment
and Earth's climate.
The IRIS spacecraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin's
Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. It will launch aboard
an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket deployed by the company's
L-1011 aircraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central
California coast.
"IRIS data will fill a crucial gap in our understanding of the solar
interface region upon joining our fleet of heliophysics spacecraft,"
said Jeffrey Newmark, NASA's IRIS program scientist in Washington.
"For the first time we will have the necessary observations for
understanding how energy is delivered to the million-degree outer
solar corona and how the base of the solar wind is driven."
IRIS carries an ultraviolet telescope that feeds a multi-channel
imaging spectrograph. The satellite is the first mission designed to
use an ultraviolet telescope to obtain high-resolution images and
spectra every few seconds and provide observations of areas as small
as 150 miles across the sun.
"Previous observations suggest there are structures in this region of
the solar atmosphere 100 to 150 miles wide, but 100,000 miles long,"
said Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator at Lockheed Martin.
"Imagine giant jets like huge fountains that have a footprint the
size of Los Angeles and are long enough and fast enough to circle
Earth in 20 seconds. IRIS will provide our first high-resolution
views of these structures along with information about their
velocity, temperature and density."
After launch, IRIS will travel in a polar, sun-synchronous orbit
around Earth, crossing nearly directly over the poles in such a way
that it moves over the equator at the same local time each day. The
spacecraft will orbit at an altitude range of 390 miles to 420 miles.
This orbit allows for almost continuous solar observations on IRIS'
two-year mission.
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will provide
IRIS mission operations and ground data systems. The Norwegian Space
Centre in Oslo, Norway, will provide regular downlinks of science
data. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space
Center is responsible for launch management.
IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer Mission, which the agency's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages for the Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. The goal of the Explorers Program
is to provide frequent flight opportunities for world-class
scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative,
streamlined and efficient management approaches within the
heliophysics and astrophysics science areas.
Other IRIS contributors include the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.; Montana State University in Bozeman,
Mont.; Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.; and the University of
Oslo in Norway.
For graphics related from the June 4 IRIS news conference, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/irisgraphics
For more information about the IRIS mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/iris
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